Hello Dr Please answer this for me. I had sex with a bar girl in Asia about a week ago. The very next day I got a sore thorut. I then devolved a ear ache. After this I began to have chest pains and now I have a dry painful cough. I checked my neck yesterday and I have 2 small lymph nodes. I am worried I caught HIV. I wore a condom but the girl put a small bit of hand lotion on it. That is what is worrying me.Is it possible the virus got through? .What do you think. Are these symptoms common with hiv? I am a nervous wreck please help me. I can tell you now that the condom did not break.Can all this just be a common cold I caught before the sex? Please reply. I need to know what my risks are. I did check the others forums for a question like this but I could not find one.I just can believe I will be done in buy hiv/aids. I am a combat vet and this is not the way I thought I would die. Please help. I am desperate.

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hello,

Combat vet or not, I can assure you all of us with HIV never planned on getting it!

Your HIV-acquisition risk is extremely remote at best. You used a condom and that's the most effective way to prevent HIV, aside form abstinence, which for many of us is not even an option! It is true that oil-based lubricants should not be used with latex condoms, because they can denature the latex and increase the likelihood of condom failure. That your condom did not break is reassuring. Your symptoms beginning the "very next day" would not be HIV related. Acute retroviral syndrome symptoms related to HIV take weeks to appear, not days. If you remain worried, get a single HIV-antibody test (rapid test, ELISA, EIA, etc.) at the three-month mark. HIV-antibody tests taken prior to three months from the date of exposure are not considered to be definitive or conclusive.

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